The invention relates to a device for assisting a baseball player in practicing his swing and for ensuring that the swing is proper. It is well known in the sport that for a player to achieve maximum benefit from his power in hitting a ball that his swing be level. Many players have a level swing when a ball is pitched within some areas of the strike zone while they have a tendency to "chop" or "undercut" a ball in other areas of the strike zone. The invention provides a means for allowing a player with practice to achieve a level swing in all areas of the strike zone.
There have been many prior art devices that have been proposed for assisting a baseball player in practicing his swing. For instance U. S. Pat. Nos. 3,139,282 and 3,489,411 show means for supporting a baseball at various parts of a home plate-shaped base to allow a batter to strike the ball at various positions that cause him difficulty. Such devices while giving a batter a realistic feel in hitting a ball have no means for ensuring that the batter's swing is level at the various areas of the plate on which the ball is supported. Thus a batter will not get the maximum benefit of the practice of hitting the ball since he will not be able to determine whether or not his swing is level.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,985,452, 2,443,131 and 3,386,733 disclose prior art proposals for providing means for assisting a player in developing a level swing. These devices are not entirely successful in accomplishing this objective, however, because they do not provide for realistic contact with a baseball, nor do they provide for adjustability depending upon the areas relative to the strike zone a player is having difficulty maintaining a level swing in. U.S. Pat. No. 2,985,452 for instance provides only level guides for allowing movement of a bat therebetween, and no perspective is provided for various areas of the strike zone, no ball is hit, and the bars unnecessarily require that a player's swing remain level from start to finish instead of just requiring that it be level in the area of contact with the ball, which is all that is necessary or desirable. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,443,131 and 3,386,733 also do not provide for realistic hitting of a ball, other materials being provided to simulate the hitting of a ball; also again no perspective relative to a plate is provided, nor is adjustment possible horizontally relative to a plate.
According to the teachings of the present invention an improved batting practice device is provided that ensures that a player's swing is level at the point of contact with a baseball while not unnecessarily restricting the swing at other portions thereof, provides for realistic hitting of a baseball to ensure proper feel, and allows adjustment of the point of placement of a practice ball to be hit both horizontally and vertically relative to a reference home plate and associated strike zone for both right-handed and left-handed hitters, while providing a device that is easy and inexpensive to manufacture. The exemplary device according to the present invention provides a pair of spaced horizontally-disposed parallel arms having means for holding a ball associated with the bottom one thereof. These arms may be mounted to a plate having a track therein providing for adjustment of the arms in one horizontal plane, while the ball-holding means provide for adjustment of the ball placement in another horizontal plane perpendicular to the above-mentioned plane. The plate may be mounted on a sleeve which sleeve is in turn mounted on a pole and adapted to be vertically adjusted with respect thereto. The pole may be attached to two home-plate base members which provide support for the device as a whole and also a reference for facilitating proper adjustment of a practice ball to be hit within various areas of a strike zone. The sleeve may be rotatable with respect to the pole so that the arms may extend over either of the two base home-plates, thus allowing practice by either a right-handed or left-handed batter.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide an improved batting practice device. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.